A nearly $300 million medical pavilion in Lanham, Md., won state regulatory approval Thursday, paving the way for a significant expansion of labor and delivery services in Prince George’s County.
The Maryland Health Commission, an independent regulatory agency, approved plans for the new pavilion at Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center. The project will consist of two floors dedicated to labor and delivery and women’s health.
The pavilion will increase the county’s number of obstetric beds from 34 to 55, said Jeanne Marie Gawel, acting chief for the MHC’s Certificate of Need program.
The facility is a welcome addition to Prince George’s County, where maternal mortality rates are higher than the state average and where residents have often sought birthing options outside the county because of the lack of capacity there. More than 80 percent of Prince Georgians seek obstetric care in neighboring jurisdictions, Gawel noted. Prince George’s, she said, is the second-most populous county in Maryland, with the second-highest birthrate.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Lateshia Beachum over at The Washington Post
